Ashland man gets 17 years in terror plot

Driver's license photo of Rezwan Ferdaus

A 27-year-old Ashland man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 17 years in federal prison on terrorism-related charges.

Rezwan Ferdaus, a Muslim who believed the United States is the enemy of Allah, pleaded guilty July 20. The charges stem from his plan to fly remote-controlled model aircraft filled with explosives into the Capitol and Pentagon buildings in Washington D.C.

He was recorded saying that he had decided to “terrorize” the United States by attacking Washington to “severely disrupt … the head and heart of the snake.” The defendant, a Northeastern University graduate, was arrested Sept. 28, 2011, by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Today, Judge Richard G. Stearns also ordered 10 years of supervision after Mr. Ferdaus' release from prison. Mr. Ferdaus pleaded guilty to attempting to damage a federal building by means of an explosive and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

"You have the intellectual ability" to examine the things you've done, Judge Stearns said. "I wish you well. You're very fortunate to have the family you do."

Under a plea agreement, receipt of explosive materials and three other charges were dropped.

Miriam Conrad, the public defender for Mr.Ferdaus, said outside the court that there was no evidence that her client ever contacted any terrorist organizations. She questioned whether the prosecution was a good use of government resources.

Working with FBI undercover employees who told him they were members of al-Qaida, Mr. Ferdaus rented a storage locker in Framingham under a false name. The locker was to store C-4 explosives provided to him by the undercover operatives that were to be placed in the model aircraft he bought with money from the operatives he thought were al-Qaida.

They also provided Mr. Ferdaus with three grenades and six fully automatic AK-47 assault rifles he intended to use on employees fleeing the government buildings he planned to attack. Prosecutors said that Mr. Ferdaus had begun planning the attacks before the FBI sent a cooperating witness to meet Mr. Ferdaus at the Worcester Islamic Center on East Mountain Street in December 2010.

The following month he was recorded telling the cooperating witness he wanted to blow up the Pentagon because it “is the righteous way … (to) terrorize enemies of Allah.” The FBI acknowledged that the cooperating witness served prison time and committed crimes even while he helped investigate Mr. Ferdaus.

The cooperating witness introduced Mr. Ferdaus to the two undercover FBI employees in March 2011. The defendant, who majored in physics at Northeastern, altered cell phones and gave them to the men he believed to be al-Qaida to be used as switches in explosive devices to kill American servicemen in Iraq. When told falsely that the first phone that he altered succeeded in killing three U.S. soldiers and injuring others, Mr. Ferdaus said “That was exactly what I wanted,” according to Special Agent Gary S. Cacace, supervisor of the FBI's Worcester office at the time.

Agent Cacace said Mr. Ferdaus' goal was to kill as many non-believers as possible. In addition to attack plans surreptitiously recorded at meetings with the cooperating witness and the undercover employees, Mr. Ferdaus gave the FBI employees two thumb drives containing step-by-step instructions for the attacks on the Pentagon and the Capitol. In May 2011 Mr. Ferdaus took a trip, financed by the faux al-Qaida operatives to surveil and photograph the two buildings.

In previous hearings Ms. Conrad said that her client had serious mental health issues. She said he was creating plots that he could not have carried out without the help of the FBI.

The Worcester Islamic Center sent Mr. Ferdaus an official warning in March 2011, saying that he would be banned if his outbursts and disruptive behavior continued. According to the center, that included seizing a microphone and discrediting the beliefs of a visiting group; disrupting a lecture in an aggressive and threatening manner; and telling women visiting the mosque to learn about Islam that they were not welcome.

In an interview last year, Dr. Imad Khreim, president of the Worcester Islamic Center at the time, said Mr. Ferdaus did not attend the mosque regularly. A Shrewsbury psychiatrist, Dr. Khreim said his personal opinion was that “we were not impressed with his stability. I can't say if he's mentally ill or not."

However, the doctor said he was put off by how opinionated Mr. Ferdaus was.